


Matched Set

by Pi (Rhea)



Category: Baccano!
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-23
Updated: 2011-11-23
Packaged: 2017-10-26 11:30:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/282536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhea/pseuds/Pi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe they'll always stand out on Wanted posters, but Nice loves that Jacuzzi's strength and passion are written on his face. Nice/Jacuzzi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Matched Set

**Author's Note:**

> written for kink bingo prompt tattoos/tattooing. Warnings for self-hatrid around facial burns and "disfigurement".

Nice hasn't left her room in three days. It's dark, and relatively cool, and that at least is nice against her heated skin. Every few minutes her hands stray up to her face to skitter along the edges of the bandages. It hurts. Nice can still see the doctors' expression when they finally convinced her to pull her hand down from her face. Under there, somewhere, is her skin. Her skin that will never be perfect again. She'd heard her parents whispering "disfigured", and there was the doctor's face, eyes solemn betraying his encouraging smile. They were all lying to her. It wouldn't get better. It still hurt now, though perhaps not as bad as it had. Still, it is clear she can never go outside again. It's too dark to see in the mirror, but Nice knows she's hideous. She feels hideous. Everywhere her skin feels tight, except for where she's not sure she can really feel it. Her mother keeps insisting she apply ointment. It hurts and Nice screams because why should she have to hurt more, it's never going to look pretty again. The thought makes Nice start to cry. She's never cared about being pretty, not really, but she thought some day she'd grow up to look like her mother, elegant hair and dainty fingers and a perfect lady's smile. Her parents work hard and her mother isn't a lady, but when they dress up to go out for an evening Nice always watched her mother put on make up. It's a slow, perfect process and Nice's mother always smiles at her in the mirror, making sure Nice can see as she applies blush to her cheeks. Her mother has pock marks by her eyebrows and a scar along her left temple. Nice thinks the scar is beautiful, it's shines light white in the reflection of the bathroom mirror. It looks like a twinkling star. Nice's mother used to stroke her face and say "what a pretty girl" because Nice got chicken pocks young and her face was unscarred. She had been pretty and perfect, and now her mother holds her down kicking and screaming to apply burn ointment to her face. Nice will never leave her room again.

Except someone's knocking on her window. Nice wants them to leave. She won't care who it is, she's staying in this dark room until- They're not giving up. It's annoying. Nice gathers the blanket tighter around her. Maybe she can hide her face and still open the window. When she pushes back the blinds it's bright. The light makes her blink a few times. When she opens her eyes he's still there. It's Jacuzzi, she can always tell him from Bres by the way his hair is a little more unruly. Only this time it's not just his hair that's different. Nice can't believe what she's seeing. But Jacuzzi's his same dumb self and maybe he does understand. There are tears on Nice's face again, they hurt a little where it makes her bandages wet but she can't stop them just like she can't stop her smile.

Nice's scar does heal. Jacuzzi thinks it's wicked and is fond of brushing her hair back when Nice is nodding off against his shoulder. She can't feel the light brush of his fingers against the skin but the sound of the movement tells her they're there. Nice wonders if he can feel her return fascination for the jagged arc of the sword across his cheek. She's never asked him how he did it. The memory of the pain of the explosion still makes her face hot in nightmares. She doesn't want to imagine Jacuzzi in pain, rubbing ink into damaged skin. The contours are jagged curled next to his eye and over his forehead. They frame the precision of what has stretched and faded with age. Nice wonders if Jacuzzi ever thought of disfigurement, the burden of visible marks. His face will never be anonymous on a wanted poster. And yet, Nice thinks, it's the most beautiful think she's ever seen.

She told Jacuzzi once. He laughed, typically nervous, running small fingers down his cheek and mumbling how he could have done better. Nice never told him then, but now, while Jacuzzi slowly walks down the hall toward her, each step careful and determined, his crutches abandoned at the end of the hall, she reaches out a hand to cup his cheek.  
"This is the most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me." Nice says. Jacuzzi looks confused.  
"Well, I haven't been hurt this bad before, b-but you knew I would walk again." Nice wraps her arms around his shoulders and he sags against her. She's always been able to take his weight, but pain keeps his appetite down so he's a little lighter in her arms than normal. Nice turns her face slightly and press a kiss to the dark gray edge where it points to his year.  
"What, this?" Jacuzzi cocks his face towards her, suddenly their lips are very close.  
Nice nods.  
"You've, you've never regretted it have you?" Nice can't help asking. Jacuzzi smiles at her, wide and sweet.  
"Of course not. It, it may seem a li-little strange but a bit like having a piece of you with me all the time, you know?"  
"Thank you." Nice looks at him seriously, her fingers tight on his shoulders. Jacuzzi's smile is a little awkward but Nice thinks he understands.  
"N-no. Thank you." Jacuzzi returns. Nice leans up just a little pressing her lips to the darkest edge of gray at his temple and following the curve of the blade down across his cheek, little kisses ending at the corner of his lips. She waits there a moment, breathing lightly against his mouth, her fingers twisted in the starchy fabric of his shirt. Then slowly, Jacuzzi turns his head a fraction and their lips meet. It's their second kiss but Nice has know for years it was coming to this. Maybe not at first, in the dark room where Jacuzzi first made her cry with his shear reckless love. She was too young to know it then. But now, they're more than just a matched set of broken cups. Her face couldn't be disfigured, she fills up the whole of it, even the parts she can't feel are her own and she is beautiful. And Jacuzzi who is marked by the shear intensity of his affections too is beautiful for it. Somehow Jacuzzi's fingers tangle with her own. She lets go of his shirt and slowly steps away. Jacuzzi's face is bright with a blush, Nice knows her own cheeks are quite pink. She gives his hand a squeeze and they start the slow walk back up the hallway toward his crutches side by side.


End file.
